Based on the cultural practices we’ve been developing plus your personal experiences, what’s the best advice you would give to someone starting a decentralized community?
We kicked off the last Soft Gov call with this question, and here are some of the answers we got from @Tamara, @santigs, @Juankbell, @natesuits, @durgadas, @Griff, @ZeptimusQ, @sem, @mateodaza, @metaverde 
- Find out what is that you are uniquely driven towards!
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Similar to starting a company or any initiative with partners, it’s important to have people you work well with and have a shared vision.
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Make sure everyone shares a similar language (way of communicating).
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Build trust!
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Intentionally pick which platforms are gonna host the community based on their features.
- Have clear paths to participation
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Promote thought diversity
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Build a foundation of beliefs and values that you all can operate around and grow incrementally over time.
- Have a few stewards to initiate the process with time and dedication to create a welcoming environment and an initial set of values.
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Transparency all the way!
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Impact Hours helps everyone to see who’s contributing despite personal or work differences.
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Clear alignment between the values and the goals of the organization. Everyone should feel united within the same goals
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Everyone is equal and looks after each other, if they are doing good or bad.
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Reading governing the commons is a really good practice. The 8 principles make you realize the importance of things that are hard to put in an equation.
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“Simply following profit maximization in a CPR will be the exact strategy to destroy it”
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Look for long term strategy rather than short term profit.
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Look into Emma Goldman. If you want to be a part of a collective, you should ask yourself why you are here.
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Work with each other instead of denying each other.
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The humanness of the Commons feels special from here because in some way we are more connected with each other, like a group of friends.
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Have objectives and social agreements.
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Nourish a learning environment, we are here learning together and building something that has meaning!
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Understand roles and the social dynamics of the group to not fall into the Tyranny of Structurelessness
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Build a culture of gratitude, this is fckn awesome!
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Have nested ecosystems and give people the agency to lead working groups and initiatives.
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Starting off small and closed. There is the desire of radical inclusivity, but when you actually start a decentralized economy, it’s important to curate the people who are value aligned. Maybe everyone can get in at some point, but not as whales to start.
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Make it warm! Encourage, be grateful and incentivize even small tasks, they will give other the courage to take bigger steps.
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Establish a clear narrative and the parameters of what you are doing.
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Keep everything open source!
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Have meetings where everyone can see and jump in like on Discord.
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Radical transparency is part of the universe. You have to include the people that would disrupt your thing to figure out how to not let them disrupt it.
What are your thoughts? Please drop other advices to this list! 